Auction details
10:30 AM 14 Jun 05
offered by
Sotheby's
London, New Bond
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ALPHONSE MUCHA CZECH, 1860-1939 MARS
MEASUREMENTS 21.5cm., 8 1/2 in. (diameter) DESCRIPTION signed Mucha l.c.; titled Mars beneath the mount l.c. pencil heightened with white gouache on paper We are grateful to John Mucha for confirming the authenticity of this work. PROVENANCE Osvald Polivka (a gift from the artist circa 1910); thence by descent to the present owner EXHIBITED Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1900 Paris, Exhibition de miniatures, 1902 LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Jiri Mucha, Alphonse Mucha - His Life and Art, London, 1989, p. 113 Alphons Mucha 1860-1939, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Darmstadt, 1980, p. 122-129, discussed Edition Braus, Alfons Mucha - Triumph des Jugendstils, Hamburg, 1997, no. 88-91, mentioned Fondacao Calouste Gulbenkian ed., Alphonse Mucha and the Spirit of Art Nouveau, Lisbon, 1997, p. 61, mentioned Victor Arwas, Jana Brabcova-Orlikova & Anna Dvorak, Alphonse Mucha - The Spirit of Art Nouveau, Virginia, 1998, p. 242 (an illustration of the postcard after the present work). CATALOGUE NOTE Executed in Paris in 1899, the present work is one of twelve drawings commissioned by the monthly magazine Le Mois littéraire et pittoresque illustrating the months of the year. The drawings were used as designs for the magazine's covers between 1899 and 1912, and were also published as postcards. Each circular drawing personifies a month as a female figure in flowing draperies. Osvald Polivka, the drawing's first owner, was a friend of Mucha and a famous Czech art nouveau architect. He designed the Municipal House in Prague in 1909, and commissioned Mucha to complete the interior design of the building. Following their collaboration on this important project Mucha gave Polivka both Mars and September. Eight drawings from the series are now in the collection of the Mucha Trust. The location of January and August is unknown. ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images: 
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